Infection Control

Winter Haven Oral Surgery

Here at Winter Haven Oral Surgery we meet or exceed all federally mandated requirements. Our Office is inspected according to mandated Florida laws, OSHA, ADA, and State of Florida Health Department.

Our patients’ well-being is important to our office, which is why we follow stringent infection control procedures and comply with all state regulations for the protection of our patients.

Let us describe just a few of the things that we do in our practice in terms of infection control:

All dental staff involved in patient care scrub their hands before each and every patient and use appropriate protective garb such as gloves, masks, and eyewear.

A new set of gloves and masks are used for each patient.

Before you enter the exam room, all surfaces, such as the dental chair,instrument tray, dental light, drawer handles, and countertops, have beencleaned and decontaminated.

Disposable items, like needles or gauze, are placed in special bags or containersfor special, monitored biohazard disposal.

Non-disposable dental instruments are cleaned and sterilized between patients.In our office, we sterilize instruments using both steam autoclave and cold sterilization devices.

A Steam Autoclave is a device used to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121 degrees celcius for 15-20 minutes. This means that all bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores are inactivated. Autoclave tape is used to indicate that the correct conditions have been met. Our machines are also tested frequently by an outside lab to ensure quality assurance.

Some equipment can’t be autoclaved, the heat would simply destroy it. So, a close alternative is done, soaking the item in a sterilization solution. This is referred to as Cold Sterilization. Cold sterilization is a process in which sterilization is carried out at a low temperature with the help of chemicals, radiations, membranes, and all other means excluding high temperatures.

You can visit the American Dental Association’s website at www.mouthhealthy.org and use the search term “infection control” to see a video on this topic. The website has a lot of information to help you take care ofyour oral health, too.